We’re Thinking Digital

We’re Thinking Digital

The world keeps moving forward. The butterfly effect of technology, innovation and our insatiable appetite for compelling content is shaping a new age of media, and with it, public relations and digital enterprise. At Wild West, we know a communications campaign needs a 360° holistic approach, and that means soldering together digital, content marketing and traditional media relations. Yet, while our industry changes, our ethos remains the same: we are storytellers.

We believe that digital PR, alongside traditional earned media, is a transfusion rather than a transformation. Key messages, beautiful visuals, social sharing, links, and content that doesn’t just reinvent the wheel, are now part of how we measure success. Here are just some of the ways we deliver a synergetic campaign:

Google keyword planner tool

As modern storytellers, we have to know that the words on magazine pages are in-sync with words on pages of the internet. Key messaging should be consistent; it’s guided by the client who knows their brand inside out, but it should also be analytical. Cue Google Keyword Planner. It’s free to use with any Gmail account, and allows us to understand how consumers search for products, services, and information online. What is their language – not our assumption of their language, but their actual vocabulary online?

For example, input ‘frozen food delivery’ as a keyphrase into Keyword Planner, and it will show all related terms and search volumes i.e. how many times respective phrases are searched for each month. Answer the Public is a similar free tool which gives a collective view of how people ask questions online. By exporting this data, we can understand which phrases are too generic or too niche to target and find a campaign sweet spot. We consider this ‘data’ in our owned and earned media online – including social network and paid campaigns – to achieve digital cut-through. We can also harness a deeper insight in the motivations and emotions behind search queries which feeds into our client’s wider marketing direction.

Influencer outreach

Now, more than ever, people are brands. The power of social media, and the way it shapes trends, opinions and brand buy-in, is old news. However, the way we work with influencers is new. PRs must nurture relationships, understand the style, fit and flair of our influencers, and ultimately deliver content that isn’t run of the mill. This is where we cross over into SEO. Links (URLs) and enriched content is the currency of SEO – it’s part of how search engines, like Google, value and rank websites. Influencer collaborations can showcase the USPs and story of a brand, but they can also lend authority, telling search engines that you’ve got something to say. Like any partnership, working with the best delivers the best. We always vet our influencers – their content, social media channels, domain authority, and growth – to know they will positively drive our campaigns forward through future-proofed relationships.

Competitor analysis

PR is about finding a new lane for our clients, but also looking to the sides to understand the competition. We use social listening tools to find stories in data, drawing together a qualitative and quantitative approach to our campaigns. Tools, such as Pulsar, allow us to find the audiences we need to talk to, discover up-and-coming influencers that are making noise in our client’s arenas, all the while monitoring the digital impact of campaigns and how they are shaping public and media conversations.

Going deeper than just social, PRs must size up the complete digital footprint of our clients. Majestic is a link intelligence tool for SEO, digital PR and marketing. Input a web address, or a competitor URL, and Majestic will show all inbound links pointing to that site. It sounds complicated, but it’s simple and effective. Think of it as an online MOT assessing the health and visibility of a client website. Apply it to competitors, and it shows how they are driving their own digital PR efforts. Analysis is time intensive but can show the power of online campaigns in real time. Learnings are key.

A transfusion approach to communications, balancing PR with SEO, means our stories will reach the right people who need to read them. Whichever way the industry shape shifts, this will always remain true.